A Guide to Collecting RPGs and Roleplaying Games

Now that many of the original tabletop roleplaying hobbyists have entered
middle age and have a little more disposable income to spend, pen and
paper RPG
collecting has become its own hobby. The Internet
has helped make RPG collecting easier but more competitive. It used to be
that collectors would go to conventions, flea markets, trades day
events, and garage sales to find old and out of print roleplaying games and books.
Now, collectors have eBay, Amazon, Alibris, Noble Knight, and Troll and Toad.

Collecting RPGs

People collect RPGs for many reasons, but most
collectors start out like I did--fulfilling a childhood fantasy of adding
that game that was a little too much for our youthful allowance. With
more money, but less time, playing the game may not be a consideration
anymore. Most gamers buy out of print roleplaying game books with the purpose of a game
among friends and a shared fantasy story, but other RPG hobbyists
collect RPG books where the book is an object unto itself. Roleplaying
game collectors may not be as interesting in playing the game so much
as in completing their RPG collection by adding a rare book. In these
cases, online auction sites like eBay become a valuable tool for the
roleplaying game collector.

If you've never considered collecting games as a hobby, you might be
surprised by the competition for rare and out of print RPG game editions. Because so many
game publishing companies go out of business after a few years or lose
their license to market in a setting, there are a lot of out-of-print
books for roleplayers. Since gaming is a niche market, limited printings of
books are not uncommon. That means rpg books are collectible.
Roleplaying game collectors and completionists browse eBay and other Internet
distributors to find that one book to complete the set.

Collecting RPG Products

When collecting RPG products, most collectors make additions based on
the rarity of the book, its contribution to the history of roleplaying,
and the popularity of the game. Most collectors are going to have a few
pet items that have little intrinsic value, but simply remind them of
fond childhood memories. But many of the books they collect are because
they want to complete a set or because of its rarity on the market.

When searching online for collectible RPG games, look for words like
"out of print," "sealed", "new", "deluxe", "collectors edition", "limited edition." Early releases of
miniatures are good collectibles,
since they were rare to begin with.

Limited Edition Published RPGs

The famous books aren't the only ones to collect, either. For example,
I've seen the Death Watch RPG from Fantasy Flight
Games advertised on eBay.
Only 500 copies of this dark future publication were
printed, and you can be certain no more will ever be printed. The book
comes in a metal ammo-case and has a parchment commission. Similar
limited edition items can be found for many games--and these are the
rare finds you'll be wanting to collect.

A game like Nobilis is another good example. The first edition of this
roleplaying game, called the "Great White Book", looked more like a
coffee-table book than an RPG. Nobilis was published in 1999 by Pharos
Press, so it's only 12 years old. But because Pharos Press quickly
stopped publishing, and the Nobilis RPG became a cult classic with
roleplayers, the original main rule book became a collector's favorite.

How to Collect Roleplaying Games

There are several ways to collect roleplaying games. One
method is to focus on a single line of games, such as Dungeons and
Dragons. Another way to collecting roleplaying games is to collect games from a certain company.
Chaosium is
an example of a collectors publisher, because most of their games and supplements were
fan favorites, but are now out of print.

Another way to collect RPGs is to collect by genre. I had a friend
who tried to complete a full collection of
superhero role-playing games
and supplements, because it was a little less expansive than what we
call fantasy or sword-and-sorcery games. I've known others who collected
in the science fiction or modern
horror RPG genres. People wanting to
collect fantasy RPG games might want to focus on one specific type of
fantasy: old school 1st and 2nd edition AD&D books, high fantasy, or
historical fantasy games.

Once you start slicing up game modules this way, you can build your
collection with an end result in mind. Any collector, whether it's
stamps or motorcycles or RPGs, is going to need a similar strategy
to avoid having a random collection.

Avoid the Official Price Guide to Role Playing Games

When starting your collection, let me give one last piece of advice:
avoid the Official Price Guide to Roleplaying Games. This book is
supposed to give you accurate information on pricing, but I haven't
found a single person who'll agree the book was ever accurate--even when it
was new. You might use the price guide as a list of RPG books to
collect, but there are probably more complete and better lists you can
print online. You'll have to learn about RPG values through study of
numerous sources and experience collecting.

Looking at prices on eBay and on specialty publisher websites like
Troll and Toad or Noble Knight is the best way to determine the market value of various
collectible RPGs.

Any rpg book price guide would most likely become outdated
very quickly. An rpg book price guide would be similar to a comic book
price guide, and it might not reflect actual prices paid. That's one of
the reasons why we recommend looking at actual prices on various
websites instead of looking for some kind of authoritative price guide.

Caring for an RPG Collection

When you start building a collection of roleplaying games, you'll want to protect
your investment by taking good care of the products.
Even simple dust has a bad effect on paper products, so you'll need
something to keep your games free of dust mites. Smudges from thumbing
through a book also have an effect, so even the most basic use (or lack
of use) can hurt your collection, if you don't take precautions. Many
older out of print roleplaying books were printed on low-quality paper, because they never
expected we'd be wanting to collect these books as a hobby. So extra
caution is required, especially with the oldest books in your
collection. Here are some other tips.

Wash your hands before handling your collectible roleplaying
games and supplements. Oil and body acids on
your hand transfers to the books and slowly harms them, creating the
slow-burn effect.

Store your collectible RPG products in acid-free boxes. Don't put your games in just any box. Plastic
storage containers work better than paper.

Store your RPG collection in a cool, dark, and dry space with relative
humidity around 35% and temperature around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Don't store your collectible RPG books in brightly lit areas or in a window where sunlight is an
issue. Fading definitely is an issue in these cases.

Maintain constant conditions throughout the year. Avoid storing in
places where heat and humidity changes with the seasons.

Finally, if you buy an out of print or rare RPG book to add to your collection, resist the
temptation to leaf through the book. The closer to mint condition any
book is, the more it retains its value. If you can't help yourself, buy
the ratty version of the same book that costs next to nothing, so you
can have the experience of reading the RPG like you did when you were a
kid.

RPG collecting appeals to that kid in all of us. Part of collecting roleplaying games is capturing a little bit of the excitement of walking
in the book store or gaming convention and seeing a book you'd only
heard rumors about. But if you want to collect the best and rarest
games, you'll need to be more than the rpg enthusiast. In this hobby,
the Internet is going to be your best friend, because it contains the
most information about RPG collecting.